Summary
- Amazon UK First Reads: Prime members get one featured Kindle book plus a bonus short read free in November.
- Standouts: Certainty — tense jury-room thriller; The Red Robin of Christmas — cosy, heartwarming festive short.
- November’s slate spans thrillers, historicals and book-club picks; Kindle+ lets subs borrow past First Reads free.
As the autumn air gives way to frosty evenings, and you quietly turn on the Christmas playlist (it’s not too early, I agree), you need the perfect cozy book to go along with it! Good news: Amazon’s First Reads has dropped its November list.
If you’re not familiar with the perk, Amazon First Reads gives all Prime users one of the featured Kindle books, and a bonus short read, for free, which you can keep in your library, no strings attached. Here are the books you can pick up for free this November on Amazon at £0.00.
Here are my two free e-book picks this month
Perfect for the festive season
There’s something for everyone in this month’s catalog, from gritty psychological thrillers to big historical fiction, but two of the short reads in particular really stood out as I was going through the new lot.
If you’re in the market for something tense to get under your skin on these darker nights, then the bonus short read, Certainty by Laura Dave (author of the New York Times bestseller The Last Thing He Told Me), is a treat. It’s the story of Cora, a woman who’s just been made redundant and whose marriage is already in tatters due to her infertility, who receives a high-profile jury summons for the murder trial of a very powerful pharmaceutical executive accused of killing two young girls. She’s then sequestered with 11 other people and the simple answers quickly evaporate into shades of grey. A very good short piece of thriller that’s worth reading.
If you, like me, are ready for the festive season, then my favorite from this month’s list is The Red Robin of Christmas by Santa Montefiore. It’s a lovely little festive short story with a 4.6-star rating from early readers, and it really does put you in the Christmas spirit. The story follows Jack, who, eight years ago, buried his heart with his wife and has been avoiding Christmas ever since, living in his seaside cottage at Cliff’s End. When his granddaughter Flora turns up to stay with him and find some refuge from her own shattered heart, she disrupts his solitude. Betty, the nice local café owner, and Dan, a holiday house sitter, also appear. As the Christmas lights go up along the coast, watching these four people slowly learn to open their hearts again, with a very faithful robin appearing to do the job of blessing the way forward, is a very comforting read.
What else is in the lineup this November?
Beyond those short reads, the November slate features plenty of full-length gems. Psychological thriller fans can dive into The Lost Ones, while historical fiction lovers have Between Breaths. Other notable editors’ picks include the mystery novel The Chaperones, the high-stakes thriller Allison Must Die, the book club fiction pick The Firefly Hour, the women’s fiction title Not a Perfect Science, and the contemporary fantasy entry Paradise of Lies.
If you’re thinking of doing a read with friends or starting a group chat, The Firefly Hour would be a very good book club pick for this month. It’s a moving book with rich characters, and it’s going to spark a lot of discussion. Alternatively, we could just put the shortlist to a quick vote and let the group decide what to read.
Kindle+ subscribers can also borrow most of the previous First Reads titles for £0.00 as part of their subscription. If you’re after a cracking courtroom drama or simply a good old-fashioned cozy festive tearjerker to kick off the winter season, then November’s First Reads are full of reasons to get your Kindle and curl up by the fireplace.